The fresh food market is no longer exclusive to local grocery outlets. Through the offering of meal-kits, startups have been pushing forward with healthy meal options and recipes delivered to the front door. Blue Apron, the American meal-kit startup company recently announced that it will launch an initial public offering in the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol, APRN. If Blue Apron accomplishes this, it will become the first meal-kit provider introduced to the public market. 

Blue Apron, Inc. is a meal-kit delivery service that offers weekly portioned meals with ingredients and recipes included in the package. Led by CEO and Founder Matt Salzberg, Blue Apron began in 2012 with the delivery of boxes with recipes and food items from its first fulfillment center in Long Island City. In the past four years, Blue Apron has already opened two more fulfillment centers, allowing them to ship all over the United States. Recently, Blue Apron has announced to open another fulfillment center that will provide about 2,000 jobs in New Jersey. Regardless, Blue Apron is only increasing in consumer count, with 159 million meals delivered since its 2012 start. Through its delivery of fresh foods like prepackaged meat, produce, oils and other food items, Blue Apron is dedicated to providing a healthier option that rivals those of grocery stores and restaurants, at more affordable prices. With Blue Apron's recent backing for its IPO through supporters like Goldman Sachs (GS  ), Morgan Stanley (MS  ) and Citigroup (C  ), Blue Apron may lead a new generation of meal-kit companies gaining their own IPOs.

© Blue Apron

In offering fresh food delivered right to the door, Blue Apron has the potential to overturn the American grocery market, an industry that is currently at $791.5 billion. In fact, Blue Apron recently announced that their current online sales make up 1.2% of the U.S grocery market, and is expected to grow by 8.5% by 2020. This, compared to the expected growth of the American grocery market of 1.3%, proves that Blue Apron can be making strides in offering a fresher option for healthy food as an IPO. 

Even before it can make an impact on the public market, Blue Apron has already garnered competitors such as Amazon (AMZN  ) and New York Times (NYT  ), the American newspaper who introduced a meal-kit delivery service. In addition to these well-known competitors, Blue Apron is also finding competition with alternative meal-kit companies such as Hello Fresh and Home Chef. Perhaps the most troubling competitor is Kroger (KR  ), the largest supermarket chain in the United States. The large retail chain has recently begun to offer meal-kits that consumers can pick up at physical Kroger stores near home. 

Moreover, Blue Apron's success is growing, but at a slower speed than it started out. While Blue Apron had a 133% increase in revenue with a profit of $795.4 million, it has slowed down 42% in its first quarter. In fact, Blue Apron is currently unprofitable, meaning that the company is still losing money. In 2016, 6.9% of its total revenue, or $54.9 million was lost, along with $52.2 million lost in the first quarter of 2017 because of marketing, technology and administrative expenses. Although Blue Apron has the potential to push back against the grocery market, investors might have to witness Blue Apron's losses getting smaller before the company can truly expand.